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Dashka Slater
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Catia Chien
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The Sea Serpent and Me Hardcover – January 1, 2008

by Dashka Slater (Author), Catia Chien (Illustrator)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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One day a small sea serpent falls from the faucet into the tub as a child is about to take a bath, and as the days go by and the serpent grows, they both realize that he needs to go back to the sea where he belongs.
Previous page
  1. Reading age
    5 - 6 years
  2. Print length
    38 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Dimensions
    11.3 x 0.43 x 9.33 inches
  5. Publisher
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. Publication date
    January 1, 2008
  7. ISBN-10
    0618723943
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0618723942
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2—A child narrates her experiences with a friendly sea serpent in this quietly quirky book. The creature drops out of the bathtub faucet while the girl is bathing and the two immediately begin playing and splashing. She puts him in the aquarium next to her bed and, as they converse, she discovers how he ended up in her bathtub and that he longs to return to the sea. She is determined to take him back, but the next day it's too rainy to go out. After a few more days of precipitation, the serpent, who has grown too big for the tub, points out, "the rain isn't any wetter than the ocean," and they decide to make the trek. At the shore, the serpent is reluctant to leave his friend, but she gently assures him that his new adventures in the ocean will be spectacular. The lovely watercolor illustrations are lush with vivid blues and greens, and the bathtub and underwater scenes are full of movement and life. The impressionistic paintings allow readers to fill in details. The text flows well and highlights the strong bond between the child and the serpent, a bond that will hold even when they are oceans apart. A great choice for one-on-one sharing, and as a bedtime story.—Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Slater's lyrical text is accompanied by Chien's delightfully watery paintings in blues and greens...Imaginative and engaging." Kirkus 4/15/08

Kirkus Reviews

"Illustrator Catia Chien's vibrant watercolor paintings reflect author Dashka Slater's lyrical underwater world." The Seattle Times

"The artwork in acrylic and charcoal pencil is as lyrical and beguiling as the prose." San Jose Mercury News

"It's a sweet, fanciful story about an unlikely friendship that seems as deep and real as any human one." The San Francisco Chronicle

"The text flows well and highlights the strong bond between the child and the serpent, a bond that will hold even when they are oceans apart. A great choice for one-on-one sharing, and as a bedtime story." June 2008 School Library Journal

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition (January 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 38 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0618723943
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0618723942
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 - 6 years
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.3 x 0.43 x 9.33 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Dashka Slater

    Dashka Slater

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    New York Times-bestselling author Dashka Slater has been telling stories since she could talk. An award-winning journalist who writes for such publications as The New York Times Magazine and Mother Jones, she is also the author of fifteen books of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has won many awards, including the Wanda Gág Read Aloud Award.

    Dashka’s true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the 2018 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association, the 2018 Beatty Award from the California Library Association, the California Book Award Gold Award for Young Adult Literature, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by the Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time.

    The recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dashka teaches at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She has spent most of her adult life in Oakland, California, where she is always working on far too many writing projects.

    Learn more at www.dashkaslater.com.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Catia Chien

    Catia Chien

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
42 global ratings
Fantastic, Touching, and Sweet
5 Stars
Fantastic, Touching, and Sweet
My son loves to have this book read to him at bedtime. I love the sweet story of a fantastic sea serpent and friendship. However, I usually can’t make it to the end without crying. It’s so touching. It speaks to the way I feel about my children growing up and the love I have for them. I highly recommend this book.
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Top reviews from the United States

C. Svendsen
5.0 out of 5 stars lovely book
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
A beautifully illustrated book that is very subtly about the challenge of getting older and separating from one's parents -- except it's the sea serpent who has to "grow up" and go off to sea, and the child who bravely and wisely helps it. I loved how subtly it helped with emotional learning - most books like this are cheesy and hit you over the head with morals. This was not, but it definitely hooked my child and spoke to him about worries I hadn't even realized yet that he was having.
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Jared
5.0 out of 5 stars Kids love it
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2022
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We had this book for our first two kids and they lived it so we had to buy it again when it was damaged.
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Ms. Susan Caughey
5.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely Child's Book
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013
Verified Purchase
The Sea Serpent and Me is a celebration of differences between creatures and a marvel of respect that each is what it is and has its own path to follow. There is the strong draw of affection that makes the human child try to postpone a separation with her friend, and there is the abiding love of letting go so the sea serpent can fulfill its own destiny. Their time shared is rich and magical. Their parting brings tears to the eyes along with the grace that allows things to occur as they should. The book abounds with marvelous metaphors and illustrations. This is a tale that can help a child to grow.
4 people found this helpful
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somethingsweet
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2013
Verified Purchase
The both the illustrations and the text in this book are extraordinary. The text really reads like something a child would say and can relate to - no tongue-in-cheek descriptions of kids here. Or parents, either. All the actions that our heroine takes seem perfectly logical to a kid. It covered some deep material about friendship and one person having to leave, but wasn't so wordy that my 4-year-old was restless. We loved it and I highly recommend it.
3 people found this helpful
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Twiggy
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2020
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My kids really enjoyed reading this book. It’s just such a classic in our family and I would recommend this to everyone.
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Gretchen Hansen
5.0 out of 5 stars They become great friends, unwilling to part
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
Fresh, clear watercolors trace the journey of a tiny sea serpent who flow through the water pipes into a little girl's bath.They become great friends, unwilling to part, even though a growing sea serpent nneds to swim in a great wide ocean. Reluctantly, both agree on parting as she leads him back to the sea in her wagon. Very sweet and powerful!
2 people found this helpful
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vck
4.0 out of 5 stars Let's go down to the sea
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2012
This is a nicely written, nicely illustrated story about growing friendships, growing up, and growing apart. When reading it aloud to young children remember to keep an upbeat tone in your voice. My three-year-old granddaughter cried, and cried, at the end.
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rebecca
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2011
Verified Purchase
Love this book.

Just love it.

Another favorite in our household (along with Firefighters in the Dark, by the same author).

this was one of the first books that if my daughter saw it in the library, it HAD to come home.

Even after that many times of reading it, it still holds up in its beauty and charm.

LOVE IT.
2 people found this helpful
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